" On receipt of the invitation
from the Trustees, seventy-eight persons decided to go to Georgia,
and left Augsburg on the 21st of October, reaching Rotterdam
the 27th of November, where they were joined by two ministers,
Rev. Mr. Bolzius, deputy superintendent of the Latin Orphan School at Halle,
and Rev. Mr. Gronau, a tutor in the same, who were to accompany them
to their new home. In England they were treated with marked kindness,
and when they sailed, January 19, 1734, it was with the promise
of free transportation to Georgia, and support there until they could reap
their first harvest from the fifty acres which were to be given
to each man among them.
They reached Charlestown, South Carolina, the following March,
and met General Oglethorpe, the Governor of Georgia, who was intending
an immediate return to Europe, but went back to help them select
a suitable place for their settlement, they preferring not to live
in Savannah itself. The site chosen was about twenty-five miles
from Savannah, on a large stream flowing into the Savannah River,
and there they laid out their town, calling it "Ebenezer",
in grateful remembrance of the Divine help that had brought them thither.
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